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Environmental Books by SEJ Members

Are you an SEJ member who's authored, co-authored or edited a non-fiction or fiction environmental book (published in 2017 or 2018) you'd like included on this page? Documentaries are also welcome. Please send the following to web content manager Cindy MacDonald:

Non-Fiction

The next food renaissance will engage green biotechnologies that produce healthier foods with minimal or no fossil resources. Freedom Foods liberate growers from fossil resource consumption and deliver superior nutrition and taste without pollution and waste. Nutrient cycling with single-celled organisms will replace “one-and-done” fossil agriculture with its constant extraction, consumption and pollution. Freedom foods made from microcrops will redesign our food supply from the foundation of the food chain, made with both single and multicellular organisms. Freedom foods free consumers for smart food choices, free growers for eco-smart production, and free ecosystems of waste and pollution. Abundance growing methods free farmers from reliance on fossil resources because growers can recover and repurpose precious nutrients from waste streams to grow clean, healthy food. Farmers will embrace an efficient net-zero carbon food production system that preserves rather than consumes natural resources. ISBN-10: 1979212864, CreateSpace, Nov 2017. Contact: drmetrics@gmail.com. Download a color PDF of Ana Feeds Our World free here.

"Back from the Brink: Saving Animals From Extinction"

By Nancy F. Castaldo

How could capturing the last wild California condors help save them? Why are some states planning to cull populations of the gray wolf, despite this species only recently making it off the endangered list? "Back from the Brink" answers these questions and more as it delves into the threats to seven species, and the scientific and political efforts to coax them back from the brink of extinction. This rich, informational look at the problem of extinction has a hopeful tone: all of these animals’ numbers are now on the rise. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 2018. ISBN: 978-054495343. For more information: Visit Nancy at nancycastaldo.com, on Twitter at @NCastaldoAuthor or on Instagram at @naturespeak

"Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel"

By Nancy F. Castaldo

In "Beastly Brains," Castaldo delves into the minds of animals and explores animal empathy, communication, tool use and social societies through interviews and historical anecdotes. Young readers will think differently about the animals on this planet — maybe it’s their world and we’re just living in it! Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. ISBN: 978-0544633353. For more information: Visit Nancy at nancycastaldo.com, on Twitter at @NCastaldoAuthor or on Instagram at @naturespeak

"Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter"

By Ben Goldfarb

In "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter," environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America's lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of 'Beaver Believers' ― including scientists, ranchers and passionate citizens ― recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them. From the Nevada deserts to the Scottish highlands, Believers are now hard at work restoring these industrious rodents to their former haunts. "Eager" is a powerful story about one of the world’s most influential species, how North America was colonized, how our landscapes have changed over the centuries and how beavers can help us fight drought, flooding, wildfire, extinction and the ravages of climate change. Ultimately, it's about how we can learn to coexist, harmoniously and even beneficially, with our fellow travelers on this planet. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018. ISBN: 9781603587396. More information.

"EarthEd: Rethinking Education on a Changing Planet"

Edited by Erik Assadourian

With global environmental changes locked into our future, what we teach must evolve. All education will need to be environmental education, but environmental education cannot focus solely on teaching everyone to live just a bit greener. Instead, it will need to both teach students to be bold sustainability leaders as well as equip them with the skills necessary to survive the turbulent century ahead. "EarthEd," with contributions from 63 authors, includes chapters on traditional environmental education topics, such as ecoliteracy, nature-based learning and systems thinking, as well as expanding the conversation to new topics essential for Earth education, such as character education, social emotional learning, the importance of play and comprehensive sex education. Ultimately, only by boldly adapting education do we stand a chance in adapting to our rapidly changing planet. Island Press, 2017. ISBN-10: 1610918428. ISBN-13: 978-1610918428. Read some of the chapters here or buy the book here.

"Every Day We Live Is the Future: Surviving in a City of Disasters"

By Douglas Haynes

When she was only nine, Dayani Baldelomar left her Nicaraguan village with nothing more than a change of clothes. She was among tens of thousands of rural migrants to Managua in the 1980s and 1990s. After years of homelessness, Dayani landed in a shantytown called The Widows, squeezed between a drainage ditch and toxic Lake Managua. Her neighbor, Yadira Castellón, also migrated from the mountains. Driven by hope for a better future for their children, Dayani, Yadira and their husbands invent jobs in Managua's spreading markets and dumps, joining the planet's burgeoning informal economy. But a swelling tide of family crises and environmental calamities threaten to break their toehold in the city. Dayani's and Yadira's struggles reveal one of the world's biggest challenges: by 2050, almost one-third of all people will likely live in slums without basic services, vulnerable to disasters caused by the convergence of climate change and breakneck urbanization. To tell their stories, SEJ grant recipient Douglas Haynes followed Dayani's and Yadira's families for five years, learning firsthand how their lives in the city are a tightrope walk between new opportunities and chronic insecurity. "Every Day We Live Is the Future" is a gripping, unforgettable account of two women's herculean efforts to persevere and educate their children. It sounds a powerful call for understanding the growing risks to new urbanites, how to help them prosper and why their lives matter for us all. University of Texas Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-4773-1312-1. More information.

"The Natural Burial Cemetery Guide"

By Ann Hoffner

You may have heard of a death care alternative called "green burial." "The Natural Burial Cemetery Guide" describes the burial grounds that offer it.​ Now for the first time, you can locate and choose the type of cemetery you want for yourself and your loved ones.​ Dead bodies not hermetically sealed from the earth recycle their nutrients into the soil and help build new life. When disposed of without formaldehyde-based embalming or environmentally unfriendly concrete burial vaults, in a shroud or biodegradable casket, they can be used to protect or reclaim forest or meadow. Cemeteries don't need pesticides and heavy equipment for landscaping; graves can be hidden in the natural setting or marked with just engraved fieldstone memorials.​ ​ ​The book won the 2017 Green Book Festival Wild Card award. It can be purchased in PDF as a complete guide or in one of four regions, Northeast, South, Midwest or West. Green Burial Naturally, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-9895946-0-8. More information.

"A New Form of Beauty: Glen Canyon Beyond Climate Change"

By Peter Goin and Peter Friederici

In Glen Canyon waters rose, inundating petroglyphs and creating Lake Powell. Now the Colorado River basin is experiencing the longest dry spell in modern history — one that shows alarming signs of becoming the new normal. In "A New Form of Beauty" photographer Peter Goin and writer Peter Friederici tackle science from the viewpoint of art, creating a lyrical exploration in words and photographs, setting Glen Canyon and Lake Powell as the quintessential example of the challenges of perceiving place in a new era of radical change. Through evocative photography and extensive reporting, the two document their visits to the canyon country over a span of many years. By motorboat and kayak, they have ventured into remote corners of the once-huge reservoir to pursue profound questions: What is this place? How do we see it? What will it become? University of Arizona Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0816531929. More information.

"Razor Clams: Buried Treasure of the Pacific Northwest"

By David Berger

In this lively history and celebration of the Pacific razor clam, David Berger shares with us his love affair with the glossy, gold-colored Siliqua patula and gets into the nitty-gritty of how to dig, clean, and cook them using his favorite recipes. In the course of his investigation, Berger brings to light the long history of razor clamming as a subsistence, commercial, and recreational activity, its ecological significance, and shows the ways it has helped shape both the identity and the psyche of the Pacific Northwest. Chapters include Native American shellfishing rights and the Boldt decision, surf zone biology, history of the “clam gun” and emergence of new harmful algal blooms (HABs). University of Washington Press, 2017. ISBN 9780295741420 (hardcover; ebook same number ending in 37). More info: 2-minute animated book trailer or on UW Press site.

"Rising Tides: Climate Refugees in the Twenty-First Century"

By John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins

"Rising Tides" sounds an urgent wakeup call to the growing crisis of climate refugees, and offers an essential, continent-by-continent look at these dangers. The crisis is everywhere and it is imminent. Detailing a number of solutions, John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins argue that no nation can tackle this universal problem alone. The crisis of climate refugees requires global, concerted solutions beyond the strategic, fiscal, and legal capability of a single country or agency. Indiana University Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0-253-02588-3. More information.

"River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster"

By Jonathan P. Thompson

When the river that his ancestors had settled next to in the 1870s turned orange with mining-related pollution in 2015, Jonathan Thompson knew he would write a book about it. Thompson, an award-winning investigative environmental journalist, digs into the science, politics and greed behind the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster, and unearths a litany of impacts wrought by a century and a half of mining, energy development and fracking in southwestern Colorado. Amid these harsh realities, Thompson explores how a new generation is setting out to make amends. Torrey House Press, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-937226-83-1. More information: here and here.

"The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age"

By David Biello

In "The Unnatural World," David Biello explores how people have profoundly, pervasively and permanently altered the planet and introduces the reader to a band of pioneering, perhaps unusually optimistic individuals working to save the best home humanity will ever have. These unlikely heroes include a scientist experimenting with farming the ocean to combat climate change, a pigeon-obsessive bent on resurrecting an extinct species and a government functionary in China working to clean up his industrial city. This book is a clear-eyed but hopeful guide to a future Earth in which we choose to remake the world to create a better environment in which people thrive alongside a profusion of plants, animals and all the other life that marks this unique spot in all the universe. Scribner, 2016 (Hardcover); 2017 (Paperback). ISBN: 978-1-4767-4391-2. More information.

"Weather: An Illustrated History, from Cloud Atlases to Climate Change"

By Andrew Revkin with Lisa Mechaley

Andrew Revkin's fourth book charts humanity's learning journey on weather and the climate system in 100 lushly illustrated "moments" — from the oldest evidence of raindrops (2.7 billion years old) through the dawn of climate change science (1856) through science pointing to a long greenhouse-pushed delay in the next ice age. Sterling Publishing, 2018. ISBN-10: 1454921404; ISBN-13: 978-1454921400. Washington Post review and Q&A. More information.